Bad Movies I Love, Part Three: Robocop 2 (1990)

Robocop 2

Overall Rating:

Retail Price: $14.98

Amazon Price: $13.49

The original Robocop directed by Paul Verhoeven is something of a classic. Released in 1987 the film had the reputation of being one of the most violent ever made (which it certainly is) but also had a level of satire running through it that was fresh in Hollywood at the time. The film was one of the biggest hits of Summer 1987 and when the VHS was released in 1988 it was a film I watched on a weekly basis for about a year. So excitement was running high for the inevitable sequel that would be released in 1990. After the success of graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns the producers of the original Robocop movie approached writer Frank Miller to come up with a sequel. Miller supposedly turned in a draft that lived up to the original and contained the same level of clever satire and violence. When it came time to film it however Miller was bombarded with notes from the studio and tasked to do re-writes as they found portions of the script were unfilmable. The film that was released in Summer 1990 in amongst the likes of Dick Tracy, Total Recall and Back to the Future 3 was something of a letdown.

The extreme violence remains as does some of the satire but the overall tone is all wrong. The biggest mistake made with the film is the section in the middle where Robocop is re-programmed to be a more caring cyborg and goes about educating criminals instead of shooting them. Its not clear if this part of the script is supposed to be satirical or out and out comedy and it just ends up confusing. Its a shame because what surrounds this misstep is solid. The story revolves around a drug epidemic that has taken hold of Detroit and drug lord Cain has become a David Koresh cult like figure dealing the new drug Nuke. After Robocop causes Cain to be badly injured in a van crash, ruthless OCP executives extract his brain to put in the body of a larger cyborg christened Robocop 2, a cyborg that runs on Nuke. Its not long before Robocop 2 is on the rampage and Murphy has to take him down. Aside from the problematic script, Robocop looks different, he has been given a strange purple hue which makes the Rob Bottin created costume look less sleek than before. The classic theme by Basil Poledouris is also missing and replaced by something altogether more lackluster. Ultimately the film never recovers from the flabby mid section and I've often thought it would have been better had the story been split into two films with the first being hunting Cain down and the next revolving around Cain's brain in a murderous cyborg.

Now you may be asking yourself why do I love this given that I have just slated it in the paragraph above, the reason is that for all its faults it is enjoyable as a film that 'could have been something great' The beginning is certainly good enough as we get an idea that Detroit is in the grip of a new terrifying epidemic of addiction. Murphy and Lewis take out a small production factory and we are introduced to the main villain and everything looks set for a worthy sequel. The climatic fight is also fairly thrilling with some good stop motion work from Phil Tippett in a time just before the CGI revolution. You can certainly see Miller's original ideas peering through as well, Cain is such a Miller character that he would have been right at home in Sin City and the same can be said for his henchmen especially a 12 year old dealer. I have come to love this film years after the initial disappointment as the first sequel to one of my favorite films of all time although something of a rough diamond. When compared to Robocop 3 and the TV series its a masterpiece. A remake of the original movie is on the way from Darren Aronofsky in 2010 and hope he gets some input from Miller as the two collaborated on an unmade script for Batman: Year One earlier this decade.

If you are interested, Avatar Press released a nine part Robocop graphic novel in 2003 written by Frank Miller and based on his original Robocop 2 script. Its recently been released as a collected volume and should be available from Amazon or your local comic shop.